What's the connection between Great Plague coffins, the Great Fire of London and lovely Linton in the Yorkshire Dales? You may already know and love Linton, thanks to the beautiful three bridges (everyone has a favourite!) over the beck, the Fountaine Inne, and the gorgeous walk to Grassington. But there's another curious story hiding in plain sight.
Close to the clapper bridge you'll see a building in a combination of Palladian and Georgian styles that seems a little grand for a Dales hamlet.
This is Fountaine Hospital, named after its founder Richard Fountaine. Fountaine was born in 1639 and left his home in Linton for London. When he died at the age of 81 he was a millionaire. As a timber merchant, he apparently made his fortune supplying the wood for the coffins during the Great Plague and then for rebuilding London after the Great Fire.
Fountaine left money in his will to built the almshouses and chapel in 1721. He left an explicit request for Fountaine's Hospital to be built to house the local poor, and made plans far into the future – his funds were also to be used to buy and let agricultural land, using the income to finance the running of the hospital (hospital then meant more of a refuge). The almshouses are still inhabited by locals and prayers still said in the tiny chapel, which is generally open to visitors during daylight hours.
The buildings are said to have been designed by John Vanbrugh, who was also architect of Castle Howard. One resident of the almshouses designed it wonderfully: “"It's paradise wi t'door locked."
For me, Linton's real delights are the extra details that you only spot when you wander slowly. I’m not alone in appreciating the beauty of Linton. There's a sundial monument on the green that proudly declares it to be (in 1949) the loveliest village in the North of England. Imagine the sense of peace the judges must have felt when they visited Linton, just a few years after the horrors of the war.